dunroving

I was looking for this post, as I thought of another expense that people may not be thinking of ... pets (seems a few returnees are bringing back pets with them). Unfortunately, there's a lot of information buried in this thread because it is so flipping long, and fills up so fast.

My annual expenses for Suzy are £2,500 (£200 a month). Depending on how many pets you have, your personal situation (working or unemployed/retired), and the age and health of your pet, you could be paying as much as me.

Major costs for me are:

Health insurance is £41 a month (she's now almost 14 and even though she's still healthy, insurance companies ramp up the premiums every year your dog gets older). Suzy's insurance has gone up from £18 to £41 in just over 3 years.

Daily dog walker costs £7 a day, £35 a week, £140 a month, £1,400 a year (she's in kennels for about a month each year, and I either take her into work with me or work from home for about a month a year)

Kenneling costs about £10 a day, and I have to kennel her for about 3-4 weeks every year because I go away to conferences (she usually comes with me when I go on holidays), so that's about £300+ a year

Expensive dog food (Burns and James Wellbeloved) is £25 for a 7.5 kg bag - stuff like Purina Bakers is like feeding your dog pizza every day. That's why she is still svelte and fit and healthy, with good teeth.

Do we have a Wiki on costs/expenses in the UK? It seems this comes up a lot but ends up buried, like this part of the Over 50's thread.

Taffy Duck

[QUOTE=windsong;9071637]Here is the house. The one on the left is as it is now and the one on the right is similar to how it used to look - it's one just a few houses down. You can see another front door has been added - that brown thing - really close to the main front door. Actually, I think both are new and the old one was somewhere in the middle. Both of the main windows used to be bay windows. I remember. They would have to have gone to an awful lot of structural trouble to remove those bay windows. I wonder if they played around with the street numbering in the last 30 years. Maybe what was her address is no longer her address. The one on the left looks awful and even the one on the right doesn't look too good now but they were lovely houses in their era.


I've seen this done before when they widen the street.. all the under ground services have to be moved nearer to the house and if you look very closely below the window to the right you will see a manhole lid for access to these services...also you can see the out line of the bay window on the asphalt. The door on the left would be the original with access to the upstairs flat and the door to the right a new entrance to the lower floor flat, a very common setup. Since the birth of the motor car and the call for iron in World War 2 many victorian homes with their rot iron railing walls were defaced only now with the heritage envelope schemes are they reversing the damage which is wonderful....

cheers....Taffy

Derrygal

Hi - I haven't been on here for a couple of weeks. Happy New Year to you!! I was back in Derry in late summer of 2009. I was all set to rent a car and drive, but took a case of cold feet and instead let my sister drive me everywhere!! The manual cars and all the hills there put me off driving!! In answer to your question, if you get a chance to visit both Dublin and Belfast try and do both, also if you get a chance Derry/Londonderry (whatever you want to call it) is a lovely small sized city with a lot of history and is one of the few cities in the UK with totally intact city walls. You can get a bus or train between Belfast and Derry or Belfast to Dublin. I flew Continental Airlines to Edinburgh in 2009 as I was visiting family there first. The Continental in-flight magazine had a front page picture and feature story inside of how great a city Belfast has become - a far cry from when it was in the middle of "the troubles". There is a lot do do and see there. I am sure Celtic Spirit or DJamison (Denise) would be able to give you more info on Belfast. When I was back in Derry, walking around the walls, there were several tour groups and I heard several different languages spoken there. It was so lovely to see and hear everything that is going on there since peace has arrived. Yes, there is the occasional isolated incident there, but on the whole it is a great place to visit - people are very friendly too. If I didn't have children and grand-children here and could be sure of finding a job there, I would move back in heartbeat!!

Derrygal

Pets can be very expensive on both sides of the Atlantic. Vets bills are expensive (especially for dogs). I have a cat so don't spend a heck of a lot, but my daughter has two fairly large dogs (black English lab and Golden retriever) and I know she spends a lot on them - between the "good" food and the vets bills it can be expensive. They're worth it though - animals give you a lot of unconditional love and joy!

dunroving

When I first came back to the UK in 2000, a good cycling buddy told me I was completely crazy to spend about $5,000 on shipping and quarantiing Suzy (but then he was a lawyer with no pets, who had made a conscious decision not to have children). At the time, I had only adopted her from the rescue agency 7 months earlier and he was pushing me to just "take her back" (like returning a TV to Wal-Mart).

Since then, with shipping her back and forth another two times and the costs of PETs/cargo shipping her in 2006, I'd guesstimate I've spent easily over$50,000 on Suzy since I adopted her in 1999 as a messed up basket case rescue dog - and as you said, she is worth every penny.

Some people buy posh cars (I have a battered old Subaru wagon), others buy holidays (I spend about £200 a year on holidays), others buy toys (I own a £10 PAYG phone with no camera), but I prefer to spend money on someone who gets me out of bed every morning and out for a walk every day.

windsong

[QUOTE=Taffy Duck;9072378] Thanks, Taffy. I see the manhole lid. I also see that part of the pavement is of tarmac whereas there are paving stones leading to the front door. The tarmac area is where the tiny front garden used to be. Maybe they took out the bay windows so it would be easier to access the manhole. Actually, when I look further down that street, I see tarmac, paving stones, tarmac, paving stones, tarmac, paving stones - all the way down. They must have been able to leave the other houses a few doors up from her because they were set back off the street an additional three feet.

I've tried to check the address in case it is not correct but she died around 1985 so I can't find anything. Besides, this address is almost ingrained like stone in my memory because I used to write to her when we lived in Scotland.

Just awful what they did to "her" house.

cheers

DR,

I'm guessing you are single?

Cheers

windsong

I agree with you all the way, Dunroving. My pets are worth every penny and they will be returning to the UK with me. Lawyers only understand money. They do not give a jot for emotional value.

windsong

I don't think single or married has anything to do with it, Cheers. I know it doesn't for me. I took on a lifelong responsibility when I got each one of my pets. They are family and I treat them as such. I value their happiness and their little lives as much if not more than my own.

One thing I look for very carefully when I meet a man is whether they have the same viewpoint about pets as I do. If not, they are gone quickly.

My viewpoint is part of my makeup, my personal ethics and values.

Derrygal

My daughter (who has two dogs and a cat) is married - she doesn't have any children (yet) but I know if and when she has children, she will still keep her pets - they are part of the family - just as my cat is part of my family. I love it when I come home from work in the evening - when she hears my garage door open she runs to the door and I see her little face peeking out the side window pane at the door - I know she is happy to see me. I know some people think cats are very independent (and they can be) but I have a lap cat and I love her!

Derrygal

BTW, I meant to say in my last post - my daughter with the pets is also a lawyer - so they aren't all heartless b*******ds!!!!

windsong

lol! That's true but I have met a ton of them who are.

dunroving

Yes, I mentioned it in my earlier post because the friend in question is a very logical person (which you need to be if you are a lawyer), not because I think the above ... though I think the reputation of the profession does suffer due to the number of mercenary lawsuits these days, in the US and in the UK.

I'm sure your daughter is one of the exceptions.

trottytrue

Beedubya....Yes its been a long time since we first put the house up for sale. Someone was suppose to come and see it today and what with my son and his family coming over yesterday and me trying to clean everything I was exhausted. At about 4 in the afternoon I got a phone call from the estate agent saying the people who were coming to look at the house had cancelled. They had taken a drive past the place and didnt like the look of it. I really am tired of the whole thing. I can see how people get really disheartened and give up. Must be the Welsh, Irish and Scots in me that wont let me give up. But dont feel that chirpy today. I have this volcano inside of me and one of these days its going to let go and those around me had better stand back if they know whats good for them. Between the estate agent my OH and my children and my brother its a toss up as to who would get the worst of it. I cannot put my Grandchildren into that statement although they were not very well behaved yesterday but I cant blame them its the parents fault.

My daughter worked for the animal rescue in town and said that all sorts of people gave their animals up for adoption for the silliest of reasons. She would get very angry. Her saying is "Love me Love my Animals".

fulwood

Derrygal, thanks for info on Ireland. Really looking forward to it. I thank you for the info on the buses that really helps. i can't drive manual car - only learned in automatic and at nearly 50 not going to learn either! On to topic of dogs.. I love dogs and my brother and I foster dogs for a rescue group. I cry every time one finds a good home but get over it. We do have our own nutcase of a dog so when a foster dog leaves our home we have our dog. i couldn't manage otherwise. I stated before whenever I do my 1 year trial period in UK to see if could move back for good he will travel with me on QM2 or stay here if brother decides not to come with me. Our rescue group took in 14 dogs over Xmas holidays as particularly bad time for dog dumping in the US. Some were as young as 3 months old and on the euthanasia list.